Pollution control board seeks compliance report from Sterlite ahead of hearing in SC

CHENNAI: Ahead of the urgent hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has sought compliance report from Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper in response to their application seeking renewal of Consent to Operate (CTO). 

Sterlite was planning to move contempt petition accusing the Tamil Nadu government and pollution board of not implementing the National Green Tribunal (NGT) judgement dated December 15, which allowed reopening of Sterlite’s Thoothukudi smelter plant. 

High-ranking officials of the TNPCB confirmed to Express that a reply was sent to Sterlite on Wednesday morning after seeking opinions from the legal team fighting the case. 

Though the exact content of the letter could not be ascertained, officials stated that compliance report has been sought, based on the consent conditions under Air and Water Acts, besides status on some of the directions given by the NGT. 

Sources said the issue of copper slag dumping, construction of gypsum pond, chimney stack height, and development of green belt, among others, has been raised. 
The Justice Tarun Agarwal expert committee appointed by the NGT has also passed a set of 25 recommendations, although some of them have not been dealt with in the final NGT judgement. 

The committee has recommended to the NGT to direct Sterlite to remove copper slag dumped at all eleven sites including the Uppar river. “The dead stock of copper slag lying in the dump yard inside the factory premises which has solidified should be removed in a time-bound manner. Thereafter, the bottom of the dump yard and the side walls should be covered with HDPE liner. Further, the company should ensure that the generation and disposal of copper slag is maintained in the ratio of 1:1 and that the company at best can retain 10 days generation of copper slag in its dump yard,” the committee report said.

Regarding the stack height, the committee has noted that until stack height was not increased, the production of copper as well as sulfuric acid should be restricted/reduced to match the existing stack height. The National Green Tribunal has referred it to a joint committee comprising the TNPCB and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials.